One conventional method for joining fiber-reinforced plastic air ducts includes forming a seal around pieces of duct. The seal may be formed by wrapping a fiber-reinforced resin material around the abutting ends of the adjoining duct pieces and curing the same. This seal permanently joins the duct pieces.
In some cases, the permanent joining of two duct pieces is undesirable. For example, in the semiconductor industry, process gases that are exhausted in the joined duct pieces may react and may form solids or semi-solids. These solids or semi-solids can clog up the duct pieces and shut down the exhaust system. To clean out the exhaust system, one needs to cut the joined duct pieces, and then clean out the clogged duct piece or replace the clogged duct piece with a new duct piece. The same type of seal can then be formed around the ends of the new duct piece to install it in the exhaust system.
The conventional process of replacing duct pieces in an existing exhaust system is time consuming. It is well known that a semiconductor fabrication facility is expensive to build. It is therefore important that any downtime caused by events such as clogged exhaust systems be minimized so that its utilization is maximized.
The duct replacement/cleaning process mentioned above is also difficult for workers to perform and uses many steps.
It would be desirable to provide for a simpler and less time-consuming solution to the above problems. Embodiments of the invention address these and other problems.